Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Rabindranath against the behavior of Englishman towards Indians

When Rabindranath was studying in the class of Henry Morle in London University, he wrote an essay in English supporting the article written by Satyendranath Tagore titled, "Bharatbarshiya Ingraj".  When he went to England for the second time he wrote a diary where he discussed the attitude of the English towards Indians and when he went to Cuttak and Puri in Orissa, he expressed his sentiment in a letter written to Indira, protesting  the behavior of the Principal Mr. Haloard  and Magistrate of Puri about Indians. He also criticised severely the Bengalees who were flatterers of English man. All these stray thoughts took shape in his article titled,  'Ingrej and Indians'. This article he read in a meeting organised by Chaitanya Library and Beadon Square Literary Club in the hall of General Assembly Institution, presided by Bankimchandra.
He wrote in a letter to Pramatha Choudhury that he had wanted to present the essay to them before entering the hall. But it was his bad luck that none of them were present in Calcutta at that time. It was only Bankimbau to whom he was able to present the essay before reading it in the hall. Moreover, since Bankimbabu was the president of the meeting and he was a Govt.  pensioner, he should be taken into confidence before the essay was going to be read in the meeting. Rabindranath was pleased that Bankimbabu praised the essay. Chandi Charan Bandyopadhyaya, autobiographer of Vidyasagar, described in details the meeting in the packed up hall of the General Assembly. During his deliberation, Rabindranath praised, in the middle of the essay,  the secular nature of Akbar which Bankim Chandra vehemently contested. Chandi Charan in his article criticised Bankimchandra's response.